GoPro HD in 24p FCP workflow

[Eric Hansen]

use MPEG Streamclip to create ProRes (or whatever your editing codec is).

as far as 720 vs. 1080, the native size of the Hero HD sensor is 1280x960p, which is 4:3. it’s an odd ratio and resolution, but thats what the GoPro guys told me at NAB. this gives you the widest angle and it also allows you to move the image up and down in FCP to select the best framing for your shot. when you select the 1080 setting, it’s cropping the sensor (ironically) and upressing in camera. since the 960p setting gives you more sensor info, i would go with that, and upres later.

60p seems smoother because its more frames per second. if you want to take 60p to 24p in real time, then you need something like Twixtor. if you just drop the 60p clip into a 24p timeline in FCP, it will throw out the extra frames and it will have choppy playback. Twixtor will smartly blend frames and you can add motion blur to make it seem like it was shot at 24p. i’ve used the Heros quite a bit and we run everything through Twixtor to get 24p. if we want to slow things down (which is what a lot of the test footage on GoPro’s site is), we retime using Cinema Tools. we only shoot 60p if we know we’re going to slow the footage down.

MPEG Streamclip is the fastest transcoder we’ve found. it also has a surprisingly good scaler.

as far as how good it will look on a big screen? as i explained above, you won’t see a difference in quality between the 720p and 1080 out of the camera since the sensor isn’t 1080. if you want the 170 degree view that the camera is capable off, then you need to select 720p anyway. due to the bend in the image from the fisheye, we usually take the 1280x960p image and stretch it to 16:9 and blow it up to 1080 (instead of changing the framing as i mentioned above) and get good looking results. but remember, this is a $300 camera. if you want it to look good on a big screen, make sure you’re shooting compelling content.

e

Eric Hansen – http://www.erichansen.tv

[Harrison Schaaf]

great info eric –

when shooting 60p for slow motion, can you transcode to .mov with mpeg streamclip and then import to fcp without losing frames?

just tried that and it looked like good old 60p slomo in a 24 timeline – what does the cinema tools step add?

[Rafael Amador]

[harrison Schaaf] “when shooting 60p for slow motion, can you transcode to .mov with mpeg streamclip and then import to fcp without losing frames?”
Yes. If you don’t put any value on “Frame rate”, the exported file will keep the original time-base.

[harrison Schaaf] “just tried that and it looked like good old 60p slomo in a 24 timeline – what does the cinema tools step add?”
The “Conforming”, changes the file meta-data so your p60 file is played at 24 fps.
This is great because doesn’t implies any rendering or processing.
The conformed file keeps pixel by pixel the original quality.
BE CAREFUL because this process is not ‘undoable”.
Do it on duplicated files.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Jan Oeding]

[updated link]

Hi

Here’s a little step-by-step tutorial on using MPEG-Streamclip to convert GoPro HD footage for Final Cut Pro.

https://oeding.com/tutorial-how-to-convert-gopro-hd-footage-for-editing-in-fcp-final-cut-pro/

I hope that helps

Cheers
Jan

[George Notaras]

Hi Eric:

I stumbled upon this because I too am using the GoPro as part of my bag of tricks. Like you suggested, I am using MPEG Streamclip to convert the files for FCP. That said, it takes an OBSCENE amount of time to convert these files. Figure of an hour for 20-30 minute clips. In your experience, is this normal?

Also, does anyone know of any plug ins or work arounds to get the GoPro footage work within FCP Log and Transfer like the Canon EOS Plug in does (also a very slow conversion process).

Thanks in advance,

George

Sony EX1
Canon Rebel T2i
Canon 7D (Sometimes)
Final Cut 6.0.6

[James Haefner]

hey Guys,

thanks for this GoPro Hero HD discussion

I have also been field testing — and I still have a few lingering Questions & Concerns:

* My camera setting is Stuck – yes, stuck — in TimeLapse mode — read some other forums seems to be an epidemic — have not heard back from the GoPro folks, yet — any suggestions?

* What is the best FCP Project/Sequence Setting? I want my footage to be 16:9 and in some cases match some other HD footage/aspect ratio — was really surprised when my footage still appeared 4:3

any and all comments, suggestions — thank you

[Paul Hillman]

Hi, and thanks for spelling out best practices in MPEG Streamclip. I tried transcoding GoPro footage to ProRes-LT, ProRes-Proxy, and ProRes 422. When playing the LT and Proxy clips back in Final Cut Pro, there is a weird effect where the clips seems to playback fine, but once playback is stopped, the still frame of the video in the viewer (or canvas) turns really contrasty and somewhat pixelated. This same effect does not happen with the ProRes 422 clips.

I also played back all 3 clips in QuickTime, and the issue was not there, so seems to be a Final Cut Pro thing–verified on a laptop, my main workstation is a MacPro. My worry is that this issue will manifest itself into something horrible later on. However, I also don’t want to make ProRes 422 clips for all the GoPro media, since the files get 10x bigger from native GoPro to ProRes 422. LT and Proxy files are only 3-4x bigger, so that’s more manageable, but this contrast/pixelation issue in the FCP viewer is troubling.

any tips?

[Sean Kapleton]

Just did a search for GoPro and came across this thread – I need to Uprez my 1820×720 GoPro footage to 1920×1080 and was going to do this in Compressor.

Does any one have some exact settings advice for doing this in Compressor?
cheers
sean